Materia Medica by Kent

CLEMATIS ERECTA

(clem)

Clematis has only been partially proved, and consequently it applies only to a few conditions, but these are very important, so that it cannot be passed over. It has vesicular eruptions almost erysipelatous in character. One almost constant mental state is that he fears to be alone, yet dreads company. He dreads the necessity of having company, and it seems that the atmosphere is full of frightful and distressing things to worry him. This makes him low-spirited. The remedy seems to fit the sycotic constitution in its mental state and its generals. It seems to be fitted to those who had gonorrhoea recently suppressed, because after that suppression will come on this mental state with inflammation of glands.

It is rather singular about the eruptions. One would not think that from so harmless a little shrub so much trouble would come; but there are persons who are just as sensitive to this vine as to RHUS, and it resembles RHUS to a great extent in its manifestations. It produces just as poisonous a condition as RHUS. Here I might speak of several remedies which relate to the RHUS poison. There are many vesicular remedies that look like RHUS, and all of them you will have to use more or less in their antidotal relations to each other, but it is well to be sure in a given case which one of them produced the poison. CROTONTIG., RHUS, RANUNCULUS, ANACARDIUM and Clematis at times look so much alike that I am unable to tell them apart by their eruptions. They are all similar enough to each other to become universal antidotes. The others are all deeper acting than RHUS. The RANUNCULUS, the little buttercup, has cured epithelioma of the lids. It has cured cancerous affections, so we say it goes deep into the tissues.

On the outer head we have a part of the manifestations of Clematis; vesicular eruptions with great itching, stinging and crawling. Now what is true of the eruption here will be true of the Clematis eruption everywhere. It is aggravated from washing. It will smart and burn, and a quasi-inflammation will set in from washing. Contrast this with the internal features of the remedy. In the teeth and jaws the pain is violent, but while the eruption is made worse from cold applications, the pain inside the jaw and the teeth is relieved by cold water held in the mouth, and aggravated violently from heat, and from the warmth of the bed. The eruption is aggravated from the warmth of the bed, and also from cold washing. We have to go into the details a little to see whether an eruption is RHUS or whether it is Clematis, or something else. Vesicular eruptions filling with yellow fluid and with induration under the vesicles. It produces eruptions very closely related to herpes and eczema, and they spread. About the eyes we have vesicular eruptions. If seen in one stage it will be vesicular, and if later, it will be seen as an ulceration. Simple and graver forms of herpes. Herpes zoster about the body. "Burning and smarting of the eyes; worse from closing them. Inflammation of the iris. Eyes inflamed, protruded, dim. Chronic irritation of the lids."

The pains in connection with the teeth are aggravated from the warmth of the bed, which is general; they come at night, are aggravated from warm things held in the mouth and ameliorated from holding cold water in the mouth. Stitching and drawing pains in the teeth; worse at night; better for a short time from holding cold water in the mouth; bettter from drawing in cold air; worse from the warmth of the bed. The toothache is tolerable during the day, but as soon as he lies down in bed and assumes a horizontal position it increases to an intolerable degree. Pain in hollow tooth, better by cold water or drawing in cold air.

Swelling of the glands of the groin is a striking feature even when connected with scirrhus. It is connected also with suppressed gonorrhoea, and with rheumatism of the joints. Pain and swelling of the right spermatic cord; this is worse at night, worse from walking and from the warmth of the bed. While it has both sides, strange to say there is more trouble in the glands that are on the right side of the body than on the left. It has produced much trouble in the bladder. Constant urging to urinate, most painful tenesmus. Flow stopping and starting. The urethra is painful to pressure. Micturition is remarkably slow, only a feeble stream because of the smallness of the urethra.

It is the nature of this remedy to infiltrate and inflame tissues, and hence it is useful in those cases of gonorrhoea where they have been slow in passing away, where they have been treated by injection. That slow inflammation of the urethra will infiltrate and the urethra feels like a large whip-cord, painful upon pressure, and this goes on until the canal is almost closed. You will be surprised to find, when Clematis is indicated, that after giving that remedy the discharge is re-established, and soon the old stricture goes away. At the end of two or three months he feels nothing of it.

A striking feature in connection with the urine, bladder, etc, is that the patient cannot quite empty the bladder. He always feels as if there was a little more, and when he appears to have finished it will keep dribbling away. This is a common feature of stricture. "Inability to evacuate all the urine at once. When beginning to urinate it burns the worst, while urinating it sticks in urethra, and after urinating it still continues to burn. Discharge from the urethra of thick pus." It is seldom indicated in the very first stage of gonorrhoea during the highest inflammation, but in those cases that are inclined to hang on. Then come the sequelae if gonorrhoea be suppressed. Inflammation of the testes is common, and this is one of the medicines suitable. Strange to say, the right side of the body is more commonly affected than the left. Intermittent flow of the urine. Urine stops and starts with the chordee still present. The right spermatic cord is very sensitive. Pain in the testes, drawing. Painful, inflamed and swollen testes. Orchitis with much painful swelling and hardness. Now when the swelling has gone down—perhaps you gave PULS., which was the remedy for the time, but it did not finish the case—there is induration of this portion. Swelling of the right half of the scrotum with thickening and hanging low down.

Provings have not been made very much in women, which is to be regretted, because it would be well to know if this remedy affects the ovaries as it does the testes. It has been clinically used, and has cured many troubles in women, especially inflammation in the mammary gland. "Ulceration and hardness of glands. Scirrhus of the breast with induration and ulceration. Scirrhus of the left mamma with stitches in the shoulder;" this is a clinical symptom, "worse in the night." She cannot bear to be uncovered.

It has rheumatic conditions of the limbs from suppressed gonorrhoea. Great nervous weakness and twitchings of the muscles. It has pain on lying down and preparatory to going to sleep. An electric shock; twitching, jerking, as if a faradic battery had been turned on. It has also a general febrile condition, but nothing very striking.

Vesicular eruptions on the body. Herpetic eruptions here and there; it has a herpetic constitution. "Eruption of vesicles and pustules; from the former exuded a clear, watery secretion, from the latter a purulent fluid." Yellow vesicles and yellow pustules. Both are common to this remedy. "Dark, burning eruptions with violent itching." Herpes that ulcerate. Ichorous, spreading ulcers.